Back when Mark Jackson was first tabbed by Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber to head up their team, there was considerable scoffing. Jackson was respected as a player and well-known as a broadcaster, but had not spent a minute on an NBA sideline as an assistant coach, had zero experience in the minutiae of coaching—drawing up game plans, running practices, quelling locker-room tiffs and the like.

But Jackson did have a seemingly endless well of positivity, and even though we’re talking about coaching a roster of multimillionaire professional athletes, there’s something to be said for putting on the rose-colored glasses, every day. When he first met with reporters after getting the Warriors job, Jackson was already promising playoffs, and the resulting guffaws were loud.

And so it is no surprise that, after the Warriors followed up their near-miss, double-overtime loss to the Spurs in Game 1 of the West semifinals with a Game 2 win in San Antonio, Jackson was again indulging in what most would consider hyperbole. But the thing about Jackson is that he says these things so much, you start to think he really believes what he says. Then, if and when things go his way, you start to believe what he says, too.

I had spoken with Jackson on more than one occasion about the prospects for second-year guard Klay Thompson, who cracked Jackson’s rotation late last year as a rookie, and was hurled into the starting lineup from the get-go this year.

From talking to scouts, the knock on Thompson was that he was a spot-up shooter, but little else. He wasn’t particularly good defensively, and couldn’t put the ball on the floor to create shots. I put that to Jackson a couple of months ago, and he told me, “We’ve only seen the beginning of what Klay can do. He has worked and worked on his game, and whatever the scouting reports say about him now, by the end of the year, by next year, very soon, he is going to change a lot of minds. I know, I have seen him grow so much already, he is only going to get better. Him and Steph (Curry) work so well together, they can be the best backcourt in the league.”

That’s where, as a listener, you tend to get a red flag flapping—best backcourt in the league? Two guys with a combined six years of experience? Thompson was good this year, averaging 16.6 points and making 40.1 percent of his 3-pointers. But isn’t it a bit soon to start calling him half of the best backcourt in the league? Part of the job of a coach is to get his players believing in themselves, to maximize their production. Jackson’s declarations felt a little like a sales job.

That was, maybe, a fair reaction in the middle of the season. But then the first round of the playoffs happened, with Curry seizing the spotlight by averaging 24.3 points in defeating Denver in six games. Now, the first two games of this series—with the Warriors as overwhelming underdogs—have happened, too. Curry scored 44 points with 11 assists in Game 1, which saw the Warriors blow a 16-point lead in the final 4:31, and lose in double-overtime on a last-second 3-pointer. It's worth noting the Warriors finally wilted with Thompson on the bench, having had fouled out in regulation with 19 points in 32 minutes.

Thompson followed that with the best performance of his young career, scoring 34 points on 13-for-26 shooting, including 8-for-9 from the 3-point line—29 of those points and seven of his 3s came in the first half alone. Thompson also had 14 rebounds and held Spurs star Tony Parker to 7-for-17 shooting from the field (20 points, three assists, three turnovers).

Listening to Jackson talk about Thompson after the game was a reminder of all he had said earlier in the year about his shooting guard. “I told him at halftime, that is in the discussion for one of the greatest halves ever,” Jackson said. “Not only what he did offensively, but what he did defensively. I mean, if you slow it down, and you see the multiple effort plays, and you see the attention to detail defensively—he is playing a future hall of famer. And he’s making him work for everything. That’s a tough task. Offensively, I have said I have the greatest shooting backcourt that’s ever played the game. Call my bluff.”

More than most coaches, Jackson indulges in grandiose talk—about the best half ever, about the greatest shooting backcourt not only in the NBA now, but throughout history. For much of the year, as he has said those kinds of things, it has been easy to shrug him off. The more the playoffs go on, though, and the more that Curry and Thompson show what they can do … well, it is getting harder and harder to call his bluff.